Nadene Manukau-Togiavalu held her cousin as he bled to death after a Grey Lynn street fight.
She gave evidence at the trial for her cousin's killer.
"[Vincent Skeen] smashed [a bottle] and then stabbed it into Luke [Tipene]'s throat."
She said Mr Tipene reached for his throat before collapsing on the ground.
Skeen was eventually sentenced to five years and two months for manslaughter.
Less than three years later she had faked a pregnancy, faked documents to get a job as a nanny and kidnapped the baby she was trusted to look after.
Today Manukau-Togiavalu was sentenced to three years in prison after earlier pleading guilty to charges of kidnapping, dishonestly using a document, burglary, making an intimate visual recording and criminal nuisance.
The court heard how the killing and subsequent court case had a lasting effect on Manukau-Togiavalu's life.
The 21-year-old's lawyer Panama Le'Au'Anae asked this question:
"What was going on in Nadene's mind when she weaved this web of deception? How can anybody as young as she was, go through this elaborate scheme, of going through a fake pregnancy, then to provide fake information to the agency, to get into the complainant's home and then to go to the point of kidnapping an 11 day-old child?"
Mr Le'Au'Anae said the answers lay in a mental health practitioner's report sent to the court.
Nadene Manukau-Togiavalu in court Photo: RNZ / Edward Gay
He said Manukau-Togiavalu was blamed by some for the death of Luke Tipene and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.
She formed a relationship with a young man that later soured. Manukau-Togiavalu reacted by posting naked photos of the man on the internet and harassing the man online.
It was amongst this background that Manukau-Togiavalu faked a pregnancy. The deception included wearing a baby belly and holding a baby shower for friends and family.
She later falsified documents to get a job as a nanny.
The family she was placed with today told the court that it took years for them to get pregnant and several rounds of IVF.
The mother, who cannot be named, told the court in her victim impact statement, that the pregnancy had been difficult and her daughter was eventually born by emergency C-section. She had little family support and there were also feeding issues.
"Nadene knew all of this, I had shared this very personal information with her.
"She knew how precious [the baby] was to me and to us and what she meant to me, which makes it all the more disturbing and upsetting."
Luke Tipene. Photo: FACEBOOK
She said the kidnapping was an absolute violation of trust.
"We welcomed Nadene into our home, thinking she would be kind, caring and honest.
"Instead she had prepared a suite of extremely detailed, articulate and elaborate lies.
"It is disturbing to note that Nadene had been planning this for many months, looking for a family to target."
The father told the court Manukau-Togiavalu woke him to tell him the house had been robbed.
He went to his daughter's cot to find she had gone.
The father said he and his wife were panicked with fear, not knowing where their daughter was.
Later he reviewed the CCTV footage captured on his home security system that showed a balaclava-clad woman coming in the back door and leaving with his daughter.
"I believe that Nadene coordinated the whole event in detail with meticulous planning and preparation.
"She appeared to do this in the most cold, calculating, malicious, manipulating and unscrupulous manner by taking advantage of a family with an incredibly vulnerable situation."
The mother said Manukau-Togiavalu kept up the charade.
"While waiting with me in my distressed state, in the police car, Nadene was very calm and very quiet.
"I believe she has no remorse and is a callous and calculating individual who has deceived and hurt many, many people in her path."
The woman caught on CCTV cameras was Manukau-Togiavalu's cousin, Sydnee Toulapapa. Toulapapa was discharged without conviction but in a rare move, the Solicitor-General is appealing that decision.
At Toulapapa's sentencing it was revealed Manukau-Togiavalu had told her that the baby was hers and that she had put her up for adoption and now wanted it back.
The baby was returned safe and well later that afternoon.
In sentencing, Judge Mathers took time off Manukau-Togiavalu's sentence for her mental health issues and her early guilty plea.
"This court, and indeed any court in New Zealand, will not tolerate this type of offending.
"Not only have you offended in relation to the kidnapping but your other actions, again over a significant period, have tormented a young man whose family took you into their home."
Manukau-Togiavalu told the court her time in prison awaiting sentence has been the best thing that has happened to her. Judge Mathers read this excerpt from her letter:
"You say: 'Today you have heard from people that do not believe I deserve a second chance and I do not blame them. However, I am here to plead with you to see past my mistakes and focus on the positive changes that have come from this incarceration. 'Sorry' is truly not enough to prove how remorseful I am."
Manukau-Togiavalu has spent 11 months in custody. In a month's time she will have served the minimum one third of her sentence and be eligible for parole.
